Spanish-English Bilinguals in Gainesville, Florida: a Cross- Generational Study of the Use of Calques

SPANISH-ENGLISH BILINGUALS IN GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA: A CROSS- GENERATIONAL STUDY OF THE USE OF CALQUES

DORIAN DORADO

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2006

Dorian Dorado

This document is dedicated to my parents.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I like to thank Dr.Gillian Lord for her patience, dedication, support, encouragement, inspiration, and compassion. She has truly been my graduate school angel and I will always strive to follow her professionalism and passion for life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iv

LIST OF TABLES...... vii

ABSTRACT...... viii

CHAPTERS

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2 LITERATURE REVIEW...... 4

Lexical Borrowing...... 4 Calques and Loan Words...... 5 Previous Research...... 11

3 THE PRESENT STUDY...... 20

Research Questions...... 20 Participants ...... 21 Tasks...... 22

4 RESULTS...... 25

Group I...... 25 Demographics...... 25 Calques ...... 26 Group II ...... 27 Demographics...... 27 Calques ...... 29 Group III ...... 30 Demographics...... 30 Calques ...... 31

5 DISCUSSION...... 33

6 CONCLUSION...... 39

Limitations and Future Direction...... 39

v APPENDIX

A INFORMED CONSENT...... 42

B DEMOGRAPHICS QUESTIONNAIRE...... 43

C WRITTEN TRANSLATION EXERCISE...... 44

D QUESTION AND ANSWER ORAL EXERICSE...... 46

E QUESTIONS FOR OPEN INTERVIEW...... 48

LIST OF REFERENCES...... 49

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 51

LIST OF TABLES

Table page

1 Demographic background for Group I ...... 25

2 Number and relative percentage of all calque occurrences for Group I...... 26

3 Demographic background for Group II...... 28

4 Number and relative percentage of calque occurrences for Group II ...... 29

5 Demographic background for Group III ...... 30

6 Number and relative percentage of calque occurrences for Group III...... 31

7 Group results for gender...... 36

8 Results for nationality ...... 37

vii

Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

SPANISH-ENGLISH BILINGUALS IN GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA: A CROSS- GENERATIONAL STUDY OF THE USE OF CALQUES

Dorian Dorado

May 2006

Chair: Gillian Lord Major Department: Romance Languages and Literatures

The first purpose of the present study was to explore the use of calques among three age groups of individuals in Gainesville, Florida. The age groups were divided into three groups. Group I contains six participants who came to the United States as adults in their twenties and have resided in the United States for more than six years. Group II also contains six participants who came to the United States between the ages of eleven and eighteen. Group III contains eight participants, all of whom came to the United States before the age of eleven or were born in the United States. Consequently these participants have lived most, if not all, of their lives in the United States.

The second purpose, equally as important as the first purpose, was to investigate whether extraliguistic factors such as education, economic status, gender, language proficiency (in Spanish and English) and nationality are correlated with the number of calques produced by Spanish-English bilinguals.

viii This study analyzed data from a total of 20 English-Spanish bilinguals.

Participants were between eighteen and fifty-five years of age, but most were in their

early to mid-twenties. All the participants were born in Cuba, Mexico or Puerto Rico or

had parents who had been born in those countries. All participants resided in Gainesville, at the time of the study.

To gather the data each participant completed a demographics questionnaire, a 21- item written translation exercise, a 16-item oral question/answer exercise and an open- ended interview.

The results showed that age group, proficiency level in Spanish and English, and gender can be correlated with calque production. But, it also showed that education, economic status, and nationality do not appear to have a substantial correlation with the production of calques among the participants.

ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

“Mi padre es seis pies de alto”. “Hoy voy a pedir una aplicación en Macy’s”. “Recibo grados excelentes en el colegio”.

The phrases above are examples containing calques of the type that are commonly heard among Spanish-English bilinguals in regions of the United States that have dense populations of Hispanics. In this study we consider Spanish-English bilinguals to be those who have acquired a level of automatic bilingual proficiency and can communicate in Spanish or English with similar effectiveness. Automatic bilingual proficiency refers to the production of Spanish and/ or English without a preconceived analysis of either language. Although these bilinguals seem to control the syntactic, semantic or pragmatic structures of Spanish, their language can still be heavily influenced by lexical interferences such as calques and loan words.

This study focuses solely on one-word and phrasal calques. Calquing is usually triggered when the speaker does not know a particular word in the target language and therefore will refer to another language to semi-borrow the unknown term. Once this takes place the speaker effects a literal translation into the target language. The definition of a calque can vary from author to author therefore several dictionary definitions are offered in the present study. The American Heritage College Dictionary states that a calque is “a form of borrowing from one language to another whereby the semantic components of a given term literally are translated into their equivalents in the borrowing

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language” (795). Another basic definition is provided in the Student’s Dictionary of

Language and Linguistics,

a calque is defined as a word or phrase constructed by using a word or phrase in another language as a model and translating it piece by piece. For example, the ancient Greek word 'sympathy' or 'compassion' was sympathia, formed from syn 'with' and pathia 'suffering'. The Romans calqued this Greek word into Latin as 'compassion', from con 'with' and passio 'suffering', (Trask, 1997:35).

In addition a calque is defined in the Glossary of linguistic terminology (Pei 1978)

as a translation loan word; the translated imitation of a special meaning ('foot' as a unit of

measure is a calque, or loan translation, of Latin pes used in that sense)” (37). Another

definition is provided by Arlotto (1972) who indicates that a calque is based on

translating the component parts of a foreign word into roots native to the borrowing

language (189).

Two categories of calques are studied in the present study, the phrasal calque and

the one-word calque. Silva-Corvalán (1994) defines a one-word calque as the transferring

of the meaning of one word into an already existing lexical item (171). As the name

indicates, one-word calques consist of only a single word, for instance, the word

aplicación takes the meaning of English 'application', when used by bilinguals in place of

the standard Spanish solicitud. A second example is grado, used as English 'grade', which

should be nota in standard Spanish (Silva-Corvalán, 1994). Phrasal calques or multiple-

word calques also share the same basic definition offered for the one-word calque, but phrasal calques are composed of more than one word, for example te llamo para atrás

used for 'I will call you back', where the standard form should be te llamo después.

Another example is escuela alta used for 'high school' instead of escuela superior (Smead

1998).

Although the term “borrowing” is used to refer to such linguistic processes as loan

words and calques, a distinction must be drawn between a loan word and a calque.

According to Trask (1997) a better term for borrowing may be “copying” (19). Loan

words are words borrowed from another language. For example the loan word for the

English term “high school” is jaiscul, (Smead, 1998: 113). On the other hand, calques are

semi-borrowed; in other words, calques may be considered borrowed words because they

are constructed from other languages and then incorporated into the target language.

Calques are not direct borrowings like loan words, because a literal translation takes place and is then incorporated. Trask (1997) concurs that calques are constructed from other languages without quite borrowing any words directly (21). Consequently a calque is constructed by taking a foreign word or phrase as model and translating it.

The present study analyzes the use of calques in the speech of three age groups of

Spanish speakers residing in Gainesville, Florida. The primary purpose of this research is to explore the impact that extralinguistic factors such as gender, income, education, proficiency level in Spanish, proficiency level in English and nationality have on the

production of calques.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The following section provides a brief overview of lexical borrowing as well as an

explanation of the difference between calques and loan words. In addition, previous studies are reviewed and their findings on calque production among bilinguals are discussed in light of the present study.

Lexical Borrowing

Lexical borrowing is a term used to refer to linguistic processes such as loan words, lexical switches and calques. Borrowing is important because it is a way of adding new vocabulary items to a language. Borrowing often occurs when speakers of a language have contact with speakers of other languages.

Although definitions differ from author to author, they still share similarities.

According to Hoffman (1991), borrowing refers “to borrowed items that can be adapted either phonetically only or both phonetically and morphologically” (101). This statement is also supported by Clarkson (1977), who stated that with respect to Spanish “phonology and morphology are both influenced by the proximity of English, but the area most influenced by English is vocabulary” (Clarkson 1977: 965), although obviously lexical borrowing is a common occurrence among bilinguals of any two languages. According to

Otheguy and García (1993), Whitney (1881), Bloomfield (1933), Haugen (1938) and

Hockett (1973), lexical borrowing does not occur because of the speaker’s ethnic pride, educational background or lack of education. Nor does it occur because speakers are expressing their bilingualism or social symbolism. Instead, researchers claim that lexical

4 5

borrowing is employed because it is the only way the speakers know how to express

themselves. The speakers have been linguistically trained within their culture to speak in

that manner. Simply put, lexical borrowing is an indication that the culture of Spanish-

English bilinguals has become “Americanized” (Otheguy 1993: 21). Otheguy and García

(1993) point out that some scholars, including Casagrande (1954), Turano (1974) and

Weinreich (1953) have said that lexical borrowing allows bilinguals to express

themselves precisely by adapting their vocabulary to the novel content of a foreign milieu

(Otheguy and García, 1993: 135). Otheguy and García explain that “no two societies are

the same; there is no absolute way in which they can express the same things or situations

in the same manner unless lexical borrowing takes place” (136).

Calques and Loan Words

In the following pages, a brief description of calques and loan words is presented.

Although the present study only deals with the use of calques among Spanish-English

bilinguals, loan words are discussed as well due to their similarities and due to the fact

that many researchers do not distinguish between the two in their works. Authors such as

Smead (1998) and Silva-Corvalán (1994) also provide their own definitions of calques

and loan words. Smead describes a calque as a transfer of meaning and not form, and a

loan word as a transfer of form as well as meaning. In agreement with Smead, Silva-

Corvalán (1994, 2002) describes a calque as the transfer of meanings into an already

existing lexical item. She describes loan words as the transfer of forms together with their

meanings.

According to Otheguy and García (1993), it is impossible to effectively distinguish

between loan words and calques. As a result, these researchers opt for categorizing loan

words and calques together as contact neologisms. Consequently, their data include loan

words, calques and word-switches1. In analyzing their data, Otheguy and García note that

“in many cases it was impossible to tell if the speakers were referring to a calque or loan

word” (Otheguy and García 1993: 139). For example, it was difficult to distinguish

whether speakers were using the English “application” as a loanword, phonologically

adapted into Spanish aplicación, or whether the Spanish word aplicación had acquired

the meaning of English “application”, thus becoming a calque. In such cases, the context

of the utterance is fundamental in differentiating between a loan word and a calque.

Montes Giraldo (1985) notes that in order for a calque to take place; there must be a

partial similarity in semantics, lexemes and grammatical patterns between the two

languages (20). For example, the traditional English word “collect'” (to gather together

objects, results in the calque in Spanish colectar (to gather funds) because of the

similarity that exists between the English and Spanish forms, (Otheguy, García and

Fernández, 1989: 45). It is difficult to differentiate between a calque and a word in its

traditional form because a similar word may be found in both languages but with

different meanings. A typical example would be the word asistencia in Spanish, which

means “attendance” in English, but when used in its calque form the meaning changes to

“assistance”. Special attention must be paid to the context of the utterance in order to

distinguish whether a word is in its calque form or traditional form. We can illustrate

this with the following example, le escribo letras a mi familia ('I write letters to my

family') because of its context we know that the term letras is in its calqued form, the

traditional form should be cartas. On the other hand, if the term letras is shown in the

1 According to Hammink (2000) word-switches refer to when morphophonological adaptation does not occur, for example Juan tiene los 'movie tickets' instead of 'Juan has the movie tickets' (Hammink 2000).

following context, hay muchas letras en el alfabeto, then we know that letras is presented in its traditional form.

Calques can also be further classified, as Smead and Clegg (1996) propose. Their initial typology of calques, like that of Otheguy and García (1988), distinguishes between

“word calques”, consisting of a single lexical item, and “phrasal calques”, consisting of multiple lexemes (123). Calques can be further divided into “merged” or “independent” categories, according to Otheguy, García and Fernández (1989), who define the former as those in which phonological forms migrate from the influencing language. An example is the calque carta (standard form is tarjeta), as in greeting card, which is phonologically similar to English “card”. Independent calques are different in phonological form from the influencing language, for example the calque estoy quebrada (standard form is estoy en bancarrota) which is derived from the English idiom “I am broke”. Later, Smead and

Clegg (1996) revised their typology in order to separate word calques into “formally convergent” or “formally divergent” subdivisions, based on substitution and importation.

“Importation replicates in the host language a particular linguistic level of the model, and substitution is the accommodation of a specific linguistic level of the model to the patterns of the host language which results in the perceptible alteration of that level”

(Smead and Clegg 1996: 124). Importation only occurs semantically; an example is the calqued expression soy de mente diferente which is derived from the English expression

“I am of a different mind”. The standard expression in Spanish should be yo tengo ideas/ opiniones diferentes. Substitution, on the other hand, occurs morphologically and phonologically. An example would be the word actualmente in Spanish, which means

“presently” in English, but when used in its calque form the meaning changes to

“actually” or “in reality”.

Silva-Corvalán (1995), Otheguy, García and Fernández (1989) and Giraldo (1985)

also saw the need to classify types of calques. First, Silva-Corvalán (1995) delimits four

specific types. The first type is single-word calques; these include cases in which a

meaning is transferred into an already existing lexical item. For example, grados

“degrees” extends its meaning to incorporate one of the meanings of English “grades”

(254). The second type is multiple-word calques that do not alter semantic or

grammatical features (255). For instance, the multiple-word máquina de contestar is derived from the English multiple-word “answering machine” but in standard Spanish would be contestador automático. Another example is días de semana which is derived from the multiple-word “weekdays” but in standard Spanish would be días de trabajo.

The third type of calque is multiple-word calques of bound collocations, idioms and proverbs, which “are reproduced exactly with lexical units from the replica language”

(255). To illustrate, cambiar de mente “to change one’s mind” is used instead of cambiar de ideas/opiniones. Lexico-syntactic calques are the last type; these are calques that alter semantic or grammatical features of the replica language (257). For instance, the following expression, mi padre es 6 pies (de altura) “my father is 6 feet tall” is used instead of the standard expression, mi padre mide 6 pies (de altura) (257). This is a lexico-syntactic calque because the verb medir “to measure” is replaced by ser “to be”.

Then there is Otheguy, García and Fernandez’ (1989) distinction between three types of calques: similar-sense versus different-sense, merged-form versus independent- form, and duplicating versus innovating-message. Similar-sense calques are similar to an

9 already existing sense of the host word, for example colectar “to gather funds” versus the

English word “to collect”, which means “to gather together objects” (45). The English meaning has transferred to the Spanish word. Different-sense calques are derived from host words with senses that are different. As an example, in quiero jugar la guitarra, jugar reflects the English word “play”. While it is standard to say in English, “I play the guitar”, when “play” is literally translated into Spanish using jugar rather than tocar this is considered a different-sense calque. Merged-form calques are those in which phonological forms migrate from the influencing language. For instance, ruta versus

“root” (of a tree) instead of the standard form raíz. Independent-form calques are different in phonological form from the influencing language, for example jugar versus

“to play” (45).

The third type distinction is between duplicating versus innovating-message calques. Duplicating calques are “strictly based on cognitive-referential grounds, for example colectar cartas where the newly introduced sense of colectar contributes to conveying a message that is almost identical to the existing message by coleccionar postales (46). On the other hand, an innovating calque introduces a new sense or term motivated by the need to communicate in Spanish notions that are nonexistent in that language (46). An example of an innovating calque word is el Día de dar las Gracias; because this holiday is not present in Latin America or Spain, immigrants have had to introduce a new expression to express “Thanksgiving Day” in Spanish. Although these distinctions are necessary in order to understand the main basis of Otheguy, García and

Fernández’ study, for the present study this distinction will not be further discussed.

Finally Giraldo (1985) further categorizes calques as grammatical calques,

translation calques, semantic calques, and idiomatic calques (Montes Giraldo 1985: 48).

Grammatical calques can either be syntactic or morphological, for example esperar por is used instead of the standard expression esperar a “to wait for” or disturbar instead of the standard form molestar “to bother”. On the other hand, translation calques are those that maintain the same meaning from the host language, for example, mercado negro “black market” and prensa amarilla “yellow press”. Although the above are in their calqued form, they are still widely accepted as the standard form. An example of semantic calques would be the word casual for the English word “casual” instead of the appropriate traditional forms, espontáneo, informal, or no planeado. Finally, the last division comprises calques that are referred to as idiomatic, for example, olvídalo instead of the expected expression no te preocupes or despreocúpate “do not worry”. It appears that some calqued expressions in Latin America have become so popularized that their standard form is rapidly disappearing.

The present study does not categorize loan words and calque words into any particular group because the purpose here is to identify the extralinguistic factors that impact the production of calques alone. Therefore, the focus is on the presence and quantity of overall calque production among the participants, regardless of the specific linguistic elements of each. The current research follows Silva-Corvalán’s (1995) general definition of a calque because of its relative clarity: a calque as the transfer of meaning into an already existing lexical item.

Previous Research

In this section, previous work investigating the production of calques is reviewed.

Although these studies vary in methodology and focus, they are of interest here because

they can inform the design and findings in the present study.

The first study is Silva-Corvalán (1994), which analyzes three generational groups

of Mexicans or Mexican descendants residing in Los Angeles, California. She divided

each group according to the length of time that the speakers’ families had lived in the

United States, as follows: Group I participants (N=4) were born in Mexico, but

immigrated to the United States after age eleven; Group II participants (N=2) were born

in the United States or who had moved to this country before the age of six; and Group

III participants (N=13) were born in the United States, and also had a parent who had

moved to the United States before the age of six or who was born in the United States.

She wanted to ensure that each participant had a certain level of bilingualism, so she

included only individuals who had resided in the United States for at least five years.

According to Silva-Corvalán the minimal time required for the development of some

degree of bilingualism is five years (13).

Illustration I Group I Group II Group III Born in Mexico but immigrated Born in the U.S. and also had a Born in the U.S. or moved to to the U.S. after the age of parent who moved to U.S. before U.S. before the age of six. eleven. age six or was born here

Silva-Corvalán’s data included one-hour samples of oral speech from each of the

participants. Her main focus was on calques of bound collocations (idioms), which are

reproduced exactly with lexical units from the replica language. For example, the

standard expression estoy en bancarrota “I’m broke” is replaced by estoy quebrado/a

which literally means “I am broke” (256). She also studied lexico-syntactic calques,

which are multiple-word calques that alter semantic and /or grammatical features of the

replica language, such as te llamo para atrás “I will call you back”, instead of the

traditional form, te llamo después or al rato (257).

Her results revealed that Mexicans in Los Angeles do not commonly incorporate calques into their speech. For example, only one participant in Group I used calques, providing only two in total. On the other hand, group II incorporated calques at a rate of

0.0 to 2.9 cases per ten minutes of conversation. The number of calques increases in group III, which produced 0.6 to 2.1 calques per ten minutes of conversation. Her results show that calques (both bound-collocations and lexico-syntactic calques) are not common in the speech of the participants, regardless of generational groups.

Given that Silva-Corvalán only considered the division of generations in her study,

I opted to further her analysis by looking at a range of variables such as gender, income, education, proficiency level in English and Spanish, and nationality in the present study.

The purpose of such an analysis is to determine the impact that such variables have in the occurrence rate of calques across each generation.

Silva-Corvalán’s calque study is informative; however, a possible weakness seems to be the number of participants in each group. The difference in the numbers of participants from group to group may have resulted in an imbalance in the data. Perhaps the results would have been more reliable if her experiment had had an equal number of participants in each group. This weakness has been corrected in the present study.

Another study of importance is Otheguy, García & Fernández’ (1989), attempt to determine the rate of loan words, calques and switching among two generational groups.

Their study is based on a corpus of 13,000 words, derived from twelve interviews with 12

participants belonging to two generations of Cuban Americans. All participants who took part in their study resided in the New York/New Jersey area. The first generation group included six participants that were born in Cuba and were all well into their adult years.

The second generation group included six participants that were born in the United

States, and between the ages of fifteen and twenty.

The results of the Otheguy, García and Fernández study verify that the Cuban-born participants used fewer calques, loanwords and switching in their speech than the participants who were born in the United States. Although occurrences of lexical interference did occur in both groups, their numbers were not significant. Both generations together produced less than 1% in loan words and calques, while the percentage for switching was slightly higher, at 2.5%. Nonetheless, these percentages are still quite small. The researchers also show the increase that occurs from the first to the second generation, expressed in percentage points, (Otheguy, García, Fernández, 1989:

49). They found significantly higher rates for those born in the United States than those born in Cuba. Loanwords had a 0.2 percentage point increase between generations and switching had a 3.4 percentage point increase between generations. On the other hand, calques had a 1.5 percentage point increase between generations. “This suggests that what most distinguishes the speech of the second generation from that of the first is calques and what distinguishes it the least is loanwords”, (Otheguy, García, Fernández,

1989: 49), .

It has been stated in previous studies that calquing can only occur when the individual is considered equally proficient in both languages (e.g., Sewell 2001 & Silva-

Corvalán 1994), but seems to contradict the conclusions in this study. Otheguy, García

14 and Fernández agree that the use of calquing indicates proficiency in both languages, and that calquing marks stable bilingualism among bilinguals, but only in certain situations.

Consequently, they consider their results to be inconclusive because some types of calques that were produced indicate that there is bilingual stability while other types represent language shift. For example, only 5% of the calques were innovative and all of those were all produced by the participants that were born in Cuba. For the most part, the second generation used duplicating calques more often, indicating that they use calques that displace existing, traditional Spanish message formulas (49). In other words, the type of calquing that second generation participants include in their speech indicates that they may be losing knowledge of the Spanish lexical system. On the other hand, some types of calques indicate that bilingualism in the United States is stable. Similar-sense calquing occurred 90% of the time, while different-sense calquing took place only 10% of the time. Because similar-sense calques are less radical, they indicate stability in bilingualism among Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States.

A later study by Otheguy and García (1993) is also relevant to the present discussion. In this study, no distinction is made between loan words, switches or calques.

Instead, the researchers place the three types of lexical borrowing in one category called contact neologisms. Otheguy and García investigate if the production of neologisms increases or decreases according to cultural context, and base their findings on two rounds of interviews. In the first interview, the participants answered questions as if they were in Latin America. When the same subjects returned two months later for a second interview, they answered questions as if they were in the United States. One of the drawbacks in this methodology is that the participants had to pretend that they were in

Latin America during the interview, although they never left New York City, where both

of the interviews were conducted. Nevertheless, the results of the study showed that the

rate of contact neologisms increased in the second set of interviews, when the participants

imagined that they were in New York City. The two variables analyzed are the total

number of words produced and the number of contact neologisms found (within those words).

The outcome of Otheguy and Garcia's analysis indicates that cultural context does have an impact on the use of lexical borrowing, but the variety of topics discussed in the interview did not. The researchers also examined extralinguistic factors such as gender, level of education, nationality and age, and determined that these were not good predictors in the production of neologisms. As they conclude, “the only good predictor is whether the topic is being placed in one cultural context or the other” (Otheguy and

García 1993: 150). The present study also analyzes extralinguistic factors such as gender, level of education, and ethnicity, but in contrast to Otheguy and García’s study, context will not be examined. Exploring the same factors as the above researchers will allow us to support or disprove their claim that these factors have no impact on the production of calques. In summary, their study provides important data on lexical interferences among bilinguals.

The results prove that contact neologisms are in fact a phenomenon that occurs among Spanish-English bilinguals. The results obtained by Otheguy and García were partially contradicted by Montes Giraldo (1985). For his study, he uses a calque definition similar to that of Silva-Corvalán (1994, 2002),

Montes Giraldo’s data were culled from Colombian newspapers, magazines and

novels. He presents specific excerpts from texts that contain words in their calque form

instead of their traditional form. To illustrate, he found the word asumir in all 27

excerpts, but used in its calque sense “to assume” instead of its traditional sense “to receive” or “to assimilate”. He concluded that calques in these written texts occurred

more frequently than Otheguy and García (1993) had reported when participants

imagined themselves to be in a Latin-American country. A plausible explanation for this

difference is the difference in methodology between the studies. Montes Giraldo’s data

was elicited in a single country and did not incorporate hypothetical data.

García, Fishman, Gertner and Burunat’s (1985) work also provides a calque

analysis of written Spanish. Their study analyzes newspapers from three major parts of

the United States as well as three Latin American countries. Their sample consisted of

five 1980 issues each of La opinión (Los Angeles), Diario Las Americas (Miami), Diario

La Prensa (New York), Excelsior (Mexico), Gramma (Cuba), and El Mundo (Puerto

Rico). Only columns signed by local individuals and classified ads were analyzed in

each newspaper. Although they analyzed a variety of variables, their interest in English

influence (ie. calques and loan words) is relevant here. Although the results showed that

calques are present in written documents in the United States as well as in Spanish

speaking countries, the presence of loan words is more prevalent than the presence of calques in the United States as well as in Spanish speaking countries. In the United

States, .99% of the samples consisted of loan words, while .37% were calques; in the written texts from Spanish-speaking countries, .69% of the text consisted of loan words, and only .12% were calques. The authors conclude that “although there are more loan

words than calques in both the United States and Spanish speaking countries, calques are

more diffused in the United States context than in the Spanish speaking context” (García,

Fishman, Gertner & Burunat 1985: 90). Nonetheless, it is necessary to point out the infrequency of these borrowings in their data. Neither loan words nor calques accounted

for even 1% of the texts.

Another significant study of calques was carried out by Sewell (2001), in which she

suggests that the frequency of calques might depend on whether one is translating from or

into his/ her dominant language. She included 26 participants who spoke both English

and French, divided into five groups according to their language background. The first

group consisted of 19 speakers whose native language was English but had resided in

France for a considerable time. The second group consisted of 3 speakers whose first

language was French and had resided in the UK for many years. The third group had 2

Anglophone African individuals who were educated in English, although English was not

their native language. Finally, the fourth and fifth groups consisted of 1 individual each,

one, whose native language was German, (who also spoke French) and the other who was

of Mauritian of Cantonese origin, who was mainly educated in French. Each group

provided a written translation of two texts, without benefit of a dictionary. The English text consisted of a short excerpt from an article that appeared in an English newspaper, and the French text was a passage from Albert Camus’ 1957 short story, La Femme adultère. Sewell analyzed calque production in French and in English as they related to the participants’ test. She found that the number of calques was greater when the translation was from French into English (total of 132 calques) than English into French

(total of 26 calques) for all participants. Sewell’s results also demonstrated that the

subjects who were proficient in both languages as shown on the test produced a higher

number of calques than those who were not equally proficient in both French and

English. To summarize, Sewell proved that calque production is higher when one is

translating from his/ her dominant language into a second language.

Lastly, a small scale study carried out by Dorado (2002) is also relevant to this review, as its main goal was to investigate whether generational background impacts the number of calques produced by Spanish-English bilinguals. This study also served as a pilot study for the project described here. The data was obtained from three generational groups of bilinguals in North Central Florida: Group I included participants who came to the United States as adults, approximately in their early twenties; Group II included participants who came to the United States between the ages eleven to nineteen and who had lived in this country between one and ten years; and Group III was composed of people who came to the United States before their eleventh birthday and had lived in the

United States most of their lives.

Dorado’s (2002) data consisted of responses to a twenty-one question written translation exercise, as well as a sixteen-question oral interview, each of which contained phrases that were expected to prompt participants to use calques in their replies. The results indicate that calquing does occur among bilinguals in this region although written and oral modes resulted in different calquing rates. Overall, the written exercise showed a

higher percentage of calques than the oral exercise for all groups. Group I produced a rate

of 30% of calques in the written exercise and a rate of 12% in the oral exercise, while

Group II, produced 47% of calques in the written exercise versus 2.3% in the oral

exercise. Group III had a 38% calque rate in the written exercise and a 15% in the oral

exercise. These results are important because they support various studies that have also

indicated that individuals who immigrated to the U.S. after the age of 11 tend to produce

more calques than other generations. Additionally, this study went further, by comparing

oral and written communication and determining that there is in fact a difference in terms of effect on calque production.

One problem with the studies presented above is that they do not target calques alone but rather examine all kinds of borrowing. Therefore, in order to understand the

nature of calques specifically, the present only looks at calques, in terms of the variables

such as level of proficiency in Spanish and English, nationality, gender, education and

economic status that may have an impact on the production. This study is an extension of

Dorado (2002) in terms of focus and methodology. The findings discussed above sparked

the current interest in furthering this line of research, although several changes were

needed to obtain more conclusive findings, as will be described below.

CHAPTER 3 THE PRESENT STUDY

The primary purpose of this study, as has been stated above, is to explore the use of calques among three age groups of individuals in Gainesville, Florida, and to investigate whether extralinguistic factors such as education, economic status, gender, language proficiency (in Spanish and English), and nationality are correlated with the number of calques produced by Spanish-English bilinguals. It is hoped that the narrow focus of this study will shed light on just how common calquing is, as well as on the factors that condition it.

Research Questions

In light of the above information on bilingual calquing, the following research questions motivated the present study:

1. Are there significant differences in the frequency of calques among the three age groups?

2. What is the relationship between an individual’s proficiency levels in Spanish and English and his/ her rate of calquing?

3. How do the independent variables of educational background, income, nationality and gender impact the number of calques individuals produced?

According to the studies discussed previously, (García, Fishman, Gertner, &

Burunat 1985; Montes 1985; Otheguy & García 1993; Otheguy, García, & Fernández

1989; and Silva-Corvalán 1994) calquing is not as prevalent as other types of lexical interferences. By isolating this relatively infrequent lexical interference, it is hoped that we can gain greater insight into the importance of the factors mentioned in the research

20 21

questions. It is hypothesized that most of the calquing will occur among those individuals

who were born in or came to the United States before the age of eleven; since this is the

group that has had the most simultaneous contact with both Spanish and English, they

have had the opportunity develop both proficiencies equally and to function in both.

Conversely, we may hypothesize that less calquing will occur among the older generation that came to the United States as adults, due to the fact that they most likely will lack proficiency in English.

Participants

This study analyzes data from a total of 20 English-Spanish bilinguals. Participants

were between eighteen and fifty-five years of age, but most were in their early to mid-

twenties. All the participants were either born in Cuba, Mexico or Puerto Rico or had parents who had been born in those countries, and all participants currently live in

Gainesville, Florida. These three countries of origin were chose because their populations represent the greatest Hispanic populations in the United States. In Florida, Cuban immigrants are the most prevalent particularly in the Miami area. The Puerto Ricans population is the second highest among Hispanics in Florida, especially in cities like

Tampa and Orlando. Mexicans, on the other hand, are relatively scarce in Florida, although many Mexicans travel to Gainesville to work in construction and many decide to stay.

The categorization of participants into three groups was carried out following

Silva-Corvalán’s (1994) criteria. Group I contains six participants who came to the

United States from Puerto Rico, Mexico or Cuba as adults in their twenties and have resided in the United States for more than six years. This six year cut-off was chosen in accordance with Silva-Corvalán’s proposal that it takes five years for a person to develop

a level of bilingualism. Group II also contains six participants, although these came to the

United States between the ages of eleven and eighteen. In this case, eleven was chosen as the cut-off age because it is considered by many to be the critical age by which the structures of one’s native language are firmly acquired (Silva-Corvalán, 1994: 15). The

members of this group have lived in this country between one and ten years. Finally,

Group III contains eight participants, all of whom came to the United States before the

age of eleven or were born in the United States. Consequently these participants have

lived most, if not all, of their lives in the United States.

Some of the participants belonged to Hispanic organizations on the University of

Florida campus and were recruited to participate through those organizations. This method of finding participants, however, had a drawback, because only college students, were found in these meetings. The rest of the participants, representing a more diverse group, were found at shopping centers, gyms, restaurants and grocery stores in

Gainesville, Florida. Participants who agreed to participate in the study were asked to sign a consent form, complete a demographics questionnaire and take part in a written translation exercise, a question/answer session with the researcher, and an open-ended interview. These tasks are discussed in greater detail in the following section.

Tasks

Each participant completed a demographics questionnaire that included 17 questions about their background such as gender, age, place of birth, educational background, economic status, proficiency level in Spanish and English, etc. The complete survey is provided in Appendix B. Independent evaluations of proficiency levels in

Spanish and English were not made. While self-reporting has been shown to have some

23 discrepancies, the information provided by participants is valuable because it offers an insight into how the participant views his/her own language skills.

The participants then completed a 21-item written translation exercise, a 16- item oral question/answer exercise, and an open-ended interview. The exercises and questions for the open interview are included in Appendices C, D and E respectively. The items included in the written translation and question/answer exercises were specifically intended to prompt participants to use calques, in that all the items contained words that are commonly calqued among Spanish-English bilinguals. For example, the written translation exercise contained such phrases, as “I get excellent grades”. The participants were expected to provide either the standard answer Yo tengo buenas notas or the hypothesized calqued answer Yo tengo buenos grados. The calque triggers included in the written translation exercise and question/answer oral exercise were modeled after those used by Silva-Corvalán (1994). In all tasks, participants were asked to use only

Spanish. Participants were given 30 minutes to complete the written translation exercise.

Participants were not allowed to discuss their answers with the researcher during administration.

In the oral question/answer exercise, participants were required to be more spontaneous in their replies. The questions were asked in English by the researcher, and participants were told to answer in complete sentences in Spanish. An example of a question in this exercise, also intended to trigger a calque, is: “Do you love your car?”

The expected calqued answer would be, Sí, amo mi carro “Yes, I love my car”, while the standard answer would be, Sí me encanta mi carro “Yes, I love my car”.

Lastly, a 2-3 minute open interview was conducted with each participant, dealing

with a variety of topics such as the participant’s high school experience or dreams and

goals for the future, etc. Only the results of the written and oral question/answer exercise

are presented in the following sections. The open ended interview did not result in any

calque production in any of the groups, and therefore it will not be further discussed here.

The results presented the number of calques produced by each participant. A calque percentage rate was then computed by dividing the number of calques by the total number of words produced and then multiplying by 100.

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS

For clarity, results are presented by group. In the discussion section all data are analyzed as a whole.

Group I

Demographics

As stated above, this group consists of those who came to the United States as adults, in their twenties. Table 1 provides a summary of the group characteristics.

Table 1: Demographic background for Group I

A Arrival Proficiency Proficiency Nationality Gender g Education Income age in the Level in Level in e U.S. Spanish English

Participant 3 $25- Cuba F BA 27 Excellent Good I-1 9 $30,000 $60,000- Participant 6 Cuba M MA more 20 Excellent Excellent I-2 4

Participant 3 High $25- Mexico F 25 Good Good I-3 8 School $30,000 Participant 3 High $25- Mexico M 27 Excellent Poor I-4 3 School $30,000 Participant 4 $40- Puerto Rico F MA 28 Excellent Good I-5 4 $55,000 Participant 5 $40- Puerto Rico F PhD 35 Excellent Excellent I-6 3 $55,000

This table shows information regarding eight variables that were taken into consideration in the analysis. As can be seen, the ages among these participants varied from 33-64. There were 4 females and 2 males. Their place of birth varied, with 2 participants from Puerto Rico, 2 from Cuba and 2 from Mexico. The number of years that the participants have lived in this country range from 6 to 44. Two out of the six

25 26

participants have completed or are in the process of completing a Master’s degree, and one of the six participants has a Doctorate degree. All participants consider Spanish to be their dominant language. In addition, all the participants reported in their demographics questionnaire that they had Spanish-speaking friends and almost always spoke Spanish to them. All but one of the participants reported that they have excellent proficiency in

Spanish, and three of the six claimed to have a good proficiency level in English. Only one of them believed that his proficiency level in English was poor. Also, worth noting is the considerable variation in annual income: three participants earned $25,000-$30,000, two participants earned $40,000-$55,000 and one of them earned more than $60,000.

Calques

Table 2 shows the percentages of calques produced by each individual in the written and oral exercises. Recall that only prompted data is discussed here; in other words, the data included were obtained only from the oral question/answer exercise and the written translation exercise only.

Table 2 Number and relative percentage of all calque occurrences for Group I Written calques Oral calques Number Percentages Number Percentages Participant I-1/ 5/11 45% 5/15 33% Cuban Participant I-2/ 2/11 18% 0/13 0% Cuban Participant I-3/ 6/13 46% 8/16 50% Mexican Participant I-4/ 1/10 1% 0/11 0% Mexican Participant I-5/ 3/11 27% 2/15 13% Puerto Rican Participant I-6/ 4/10 40% 3/15 20% Puerto Rican Total 21/66 32% 18/85 21%

Most of the participants did not fully complete either exercise due to time

constraints. Many were only able to sacrifice 20-30 minutes for the process. Although this

resulted in somewhat inconsistent participation, all data were considered valuable and are considered in the analysis.

The second column in Table 2 presents the number of calques that each participant

employed in their writing, taken from the total number of translations that participants

completed. It is clear here that most participants finished only about half of 21 items. As

a result, the number of possible calques was reduced from 126 (21 items X 6 participants)

to 66. In order to compare these raw numbers, the next column converts each

participant’s production to a percentage (number of items containing calques divided by

the number of items completed, then multiplied by 100). The resulting percentage can be

considered the participants’ rate of calque production in the experimental tasks. Group I

as a whole produced a total of 21 calques out of 66 possibilities in the written exercise, a

rate of 32% calquing.

The results for the oral question/answer exercise were also impacted by the number

of exercises each participant was able to complete. These numbers are presented in the

fourth and fifth columns of Table 2, as raw numbers and percentages, respectively. In

this exercise, Group I produced a total of 18 calques out of 85 possible chances, for a rate

of 21%. We will see below that this was the smallest percentage of calque use of all three

groups.

Group II

Demographics

Participants in Group II include those who came to the United States after the age

of eleven but before the age of eighteen. Table 3 presents the relevant demographic

information for the participants in

Table 3: Demographic background for Group II

Arrival Proficiency Proficiency Nationality Gender Age Education Income age in Level in Level in the U.S. Spanish English

Participant $10- Cuba F 22 BA 14 Excellent Good II-1 20,000 Participant $150- Cuba M 22 BA 13 Excellent Excellent II-2 200,000 Participant $10- Mexico M 19 BA 17 Excellent Poor II-3 20,000 Participant $40- Mexico M 21 BA 12 Excellent Good II-4 55,000 Participant Puerto High $10- F 19 11 Good Good II-5 Rico school 20,000 Participant Puerto $10- M 35 BA 18 Good Good II-6 Rico 20,000

There were two females and four males in Group II. Five of the participants were younger than twenty-two years old, while the sixth was in his 30s. The ethnic breakdown was the same as Group I, with 2 Cubans, 2 Mexicans and 2 Puerto Ricans. All but one participant were in the process of obtaining their Bachelor’s degree at the time of the experiment.

All but one participant considered Spanish to be their dominant language. This is interesting because according Silva-Corvalán (2001), these age groups usually adopt linguistic elements around them rapidly in order to seek the acceptance of the homogenous predominant group (102). In this case, though the young participants have kept close contact with their first language, despite having resided in the United States for several years. Four of the six participants rated their proficiency level in Spanish as excellent, while the other two evaluated their Spanish as good. On the other hand, only one person thought that his proficiency level in English was excellent, one rated it as poor and the rest of the participants said that they had a good level of proficiency in English.

Most of the people in Group II earned between $10,000 to $20,000 per year, and

one was in the $40,000-$55,000 range. This relatively low income bracket may be at least

partially explained by the fact that five of the six participants were still students. The

other participant earned a yearly salary between $150,000 and $200,000.

Calques

Table 4 presents the occurrences of calques in the written and oral responses of the

participants in Group II.

Table 4: Number and relative percentage of calque occurrences for Group II Written calques Oral calques

Number Percentage Number Percentage Participant II-1/ 14/21 67% 3/14 21% Cuban Participant II- 2/ 5/11 45% 4/15 27% Cuban Participant II-3/ 5/11 45% 3/13 23% Mexican Participant II-4/ 6/11 55% 5/14 36% Mexican Participant II-5/ 7/12 58% 5/15 33% Puerto Rican Participant II-6/ 4/10 40% 4/15 27% Puerto Rican Total 41/76 54% 24/86 28%

As with the first group’s findings, the second column illustrates the number of

calques that each participant used in his/her writing, out of the total number of

translations that each participant completed. The total percentage of calques in the written

exercise was a rate of 54%. The fourth column of table 4 presents the results for the oral question/answer exercise. The group as a whole only produced a rate of 28% calques in the question/answer exercise

Group III

Demographics

This group includes people who were born in the United States or moved here

before the age of 11. Table 5 presents the relevant demographic information for the

participants in this group.

Table 5: Demographic background for Group III Arrival Proficiency Proficiency Ethnicity Gender Age Education Income age in Level in Level in the USA Spanish English Participant $10- Cuba M 19 BA 1 Excellent Excellent III-1 20,000 Participant $10- Cuba F 21 BA Born Good Excellent III-2 20,000 Participant No Cuba F 19 BA Born Good Excellent III-3 income Participant $25- Mexico F 19 BA Born Excellent Excellent III-4 30,000 Participant No Mexico F 19 BA 4 Good Excellent III-5 income Participant High $10- Mexico M 21 8 Excellent Excellent III-6 School 20,000 Participant Puerto $10- M 21 BA Born Good Excellent III-7 Rico 20,000 Participant Puerto No M 21 BA 10 Good Good III-8 Rico income

This group had a relatively young average age, ranging from 19 to 21. There were 3

Cubans, 3 Mexicans and 2 Puerto Ricans. In contrast to Groups I and II, which only had

participants that were born in other countries, Group III had four participants born in the

United States. There were 4 females and 4 males.

The level of education for this group was as high as in Group II. All participants

except one were in the process of finishing their bachelor’s degree. Their overall income

was rather low, ranging between $10,000 and $20,000 per year although again this may

be explained by their student status. One person had a yearly salary of $25,000 to

$30,000, while two had no yearly income.

The participants in this group differed from those of the first and second groups in

that all but 2 considered their dominant language to be English. Of the other 2 participants, one said Spanish was his dominant language, and the other said that he considered himself equally dominant in both English and Spanish. Most of the participants in this group said that their level of proficiency in English was excellent, while one subject indicated that his proficiency level in English was good. On the other hand, three stated that their proficiency level in Spanish was excellent and five classified

it as good. All of them commented that Spanish was as important to them as English

because they use both languages to communicate with their family members.

Calques

Table 6 presents the number of occurrences in both the written and oral exercises

among Group III. The final percentage was calculated from a total number of 152 calques

possible (all the possible occurrences of calques within the written exercise). Note that in

this group most participants were able to complete both tasks.

Table 6. Number and relative percentage of calque occurrences for Group III Written calques Oral calques Number Percentage Number Percentage Participant III-1/ 5/21 24% 4/15 27% Cuban Participant III-2/ 11/21 52% 7/15 47% Cuban Participant III-3/ 8/21 38% 2/15 13% Cuban Participant III-4/ 7/ 21 33% 1/16 .08% Mexican Participant III-5/ 4/13 31% 3/14 21% Mexican Participant III-6/ 5/13 38% 4/15 27% Mexican Participant III-7/ 10/21 48% 7/16 44% Puerto Rican Participant III-8/ 3/21 14% 2/16 12% Puerto Rican Total 58/152 38% 33/118 28%

Group III produced calques in 38% of the written exercise and in 28% of the oral

exercise. This pattern is similar to that of Group I. There was a slight difference between

the oral results and the written results for Group III. The percentage of oral calques that the participants produced was only 28%, compared to 38% for the written exercise.

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION

The following section reviews these findings as a whole in an attempt to answer the

research questions that motivated the study. The first issue discussed is if there are

significant differences in the frequency of calques among the three age groups.

According to the results, Group II calqued the most, while Group I calqued the least. The

high incidence of calquing in Group II might be explained by the fact that it was

composed of individuals that came to the United States between the ages of eleven and

eighteen. Because they came after the age of eleven, it is possible that they have not fully

acquired the structures of English. Note that this does not mean that Group II’s

proficiency level in English is poor, only that it is lower than their level of Spanish. These

results contradict Silva-Corvalán’s (1994) study, in which she found that participants that

came to the U.S. after the age of eleven calqued the least. It might be argued that the

difference between results in the two studies could be due to the methodology employed by each researcher. For instance, Silva-Corvalán (1994) only analyzed data from open- ended interviews, while the present study analyzed prompted data in a written and an oral exercise, which could lead to greater calquing than natural or spontaneous conversation.

In contrast to Group II, Group I produced the least calques in both exercises. Their low numbers may be due to their late acquisition of English, an outcome which is supported by Silva-Corvalán’s (1994). The current results also agree with those of

Otheguy, García and Fernández (1989), who specified that the first generation (people born in Cuba) calqued less than those of the second generation (people of Cuban descent

33 34

born in the United States). Therefore, these results show that generational background

does have an impact on the use of calques.

The second question that will be discussed is the nature of the relationship between

an individual’s proficiency level in Spanish and English and his/her rate of calquing.

Recall that Otheguy & García (1993) affirmed that calquing has no correlation with any

linguistic factors, ascribing it rather to the fact that no two cultures are identical, making

calquing necessary for effective communication to take place between speakers (136). In

the present study, level of proficiency in either language was shown to be a possible

explanation for the level of calque production only in certain individuals. For instance,

participant I-4 regarded himself as having a poor level of proficiency in English and an

excellent level of proficiency in Spanish. He produced the least calquing: only 1% of his

written answers contained calques, and he produced none in the question/answer

exercise. This may confirm previous affirmations that in order for calquing to take place,

the proficiency level in both English and Spanish has to be considered good to excellent.

For example, participant I-3 produced the most calquing in Group I, a rate of 46% of

calques in the written translation exercise and 50% in the question/answer exercise. This

participant reported good proficiency in both English and Spanish. Another participant

who showed a high percentage of calquing in comparison to the other participants was

III-7, who had a calquing rate of 48% in the written translation exercise and 44% in the

question/answer exercise. He considered himself to have good proficiency in Spanish and

excellent level in English. These results are supported by Silva-Corvalán (1994), where

she indicates that more proficient speakers are able to display linguistic creativity and thus are able to incorporate calques into their speech (183). This evidence would lead us

to conclude that a person who is proficient in both languages will have a higher

production of calques than an individual who is not proficient in one of the languages, although in the current data we can only base this conclusion on the data of some individuals.

The third research question asked how dependent variables such as education, economic status, nationality and gender might impact the number of calques individuals produced. Each group had individuals who calqued more than others and it is these differences we can examine to determine if certain factors correlate to calque use. We turn first to education.

Education does not seem to influence the production of calques among the participants. The rates were similar across all levels of education. For example, those participants that only had a high school diploma produced a rate of 40% of calques, those with a Bachelor of Arts’ degree had a rate of 41%, and those with a Doctorate degree had a rate of 40% in calque production. The only participants that showed a slight difference

from the numbers above are those with a Master’s degree, with a rate of 23%. The only

plausible explanation may be one that has nothing to do with education: although both

participants work and live in the U.S, these two reported that they go back to their

countries for 3 to 4 months at a time. This means that because they get the opportunity to

spend a considerable amount of time in their native country, they are able to maintain

direct contact with Spanish and therefore maintain their native-like language skills.

Another variable that was examined is economic status. Recall that this variable has

not been treated extensively in previous work, so it is of especial interest here. However,

the results for economic status appear to be inconclusive because there are contradictions

among the data. For example, participant II-2, whose yearly income of $150,000-

$200,000 was among the highest produced one of the highest rates of calques among all

participants, while participant III-8, who had no income, produced one of the lowest rates

of calques among all three groups. Many other participants who had high incomes also

produced high numbers of calques, while a number of low-income participants produced

small numbers of calques and vice versa. These rates may lead us to believe high income

correlates to high calque use, but the data are not uniformly conclusive. Participants such

as I-2 belong in the high income bracket ($60,000 or more) but produced the smallest rate

of calquing among all three groups, while participant II-1 belongs in the low income

bracket, ($10,000-20,000) but produced the highest rate of calques in all the groups.

Based on these results, we can not determine conclusively the correlation between economic status and the production of calques among Spanish-English bilinguals, although this area indeed merits further attention.

The third variable analyzed is gender. There were slight differences between males and females in the number of calques produced in all groups. Women produced a slightly higher number of calques than their male counterparts, generally speaking. For example, in Group II males produced a rate of 47% calques, while the females produced a rate of

64%. In Group I, the women were also the higher producers of calques, with an even higher differential: the females had a rate of 40% of calques while the males had a rate of

14%. In Group III the women produced a rate of 40% calques, with males at 30%.

Table 7 Group results for gender Gender Group I Group II Group III Males 14% 47% 30% Females 40% 64% 40%

Although these differences are large, it can still be theorized that gender may have some

impact on the production of calques. It is important to note that according to Silva-

Corvalán (2001), women are not usually initiators of new linguistic variables (98).

Women are often categorized as speaking conservatively and maintaining standard

grammatical, semantic and lexical variables. Women have been known to embrace new

linguistic variables only when they have no negative connotations within the community

(Silva-Corvalán 2001: 98). This is interesting in the light of these results since a certain

amount of stigma is associated with lexical interferences such as calques (Clarkson 1977:

965), and yet we still see the females are producing more calques.

Table 8 Results for nationality Cubans 43% Mexicans 39% Puerto Ricans 36%

The last variable discussed is how the participants from different ethnic nationalities (Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans) evidence different rates of calquing.

According to these results, nationality does not appear to impact the production of

calques, as the rates were similar across each nationality. For example, Cubans had a rate

of 43% written calques, Mexicans had a rate of 39% and Puerto Ricans produced a rate of

36% in the written translation exercise. The results of the oral question/answer exercise

contain a similar rate among all three nationalities Cubans produce a calquing rate of

25%; Mexicans a rate of 24% and Puerto Ricans had a total rate of 28%.

To summarize the above, the results show that gender is the only variable that can

be correlated with the production of calquing and education can not. This is supported by

Otheguy & García (1993), but disputed by Silva-Corvalán (1994). According to Silva-

Corvalán (1994) educational background may be correlated with the production of calques among Spanish-English bilinguals. The results for economic status are inconclusive, but according to Silva-Corvalán economic status does impact the use of calques. Lastly, nationality does not impact the production of calques.

CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION

This study has been able to provide tentative answers for all the research questions

posed. It has been shown that education, economic status, and nationality do not appear

to have substantial correlation with the production of calques in this participant group,

while generational group, proficiency level in Spanish and English and gender do

correlate with calque production. It could be argued that, since this study treats education,

economic status and gender individually, and does not correlate them with other factors,

such as their attitudes toward the maintenance of Spanish and/or how frequently they use

Spanish in their daily lives, this could be the cause for the results. Perhaps in future works, each of these factors can further be associated with other factors, such as in Silva-

Corvalán (2002), for the outcome to prove otherwise.

Limitations and Future Direction

These results are of interest to the growing bilingual community, especially in

Florida. Nonetheless, there were several limitations to this study. The main drawback was the number of exercises that the participants completed. Recall that the written translation exercise contained twenty-one items, of which most participants answered only about half. The same was true for the oral question/answer exercise, which was composed of 16 items total, of which participants again only answered a portion. Although percentages were used to help normalize the results, this disparity may have altered the overall findings. In future studies, it is important to insist on consistency in order to obtain strong and more reliable results. Another limitation of the present study is the number of

39 40

females and males in each group. Group II and III had an equal distribution of males and

females but Group I did not. Future work should ensure an equal number of females and

males in each group in order for any analysis regarding the role of gender to be reliable

and accurate.

An additional limitation with the results is that participants self-reported their

proficiency levels in English and Spanish. This method is, of course, wholly subjective,

and is not corroborated by other data. For example, several participants in this study said

that they were equally proficient in both English and Spanish, but informal conversation

with them before and after data collection revealed to the researcher that they in fact had difficulty expressing themselves in one of the languages. To avoid this drawback in future work, proficiency levels should be determined in a more objective manner, for example, as Sewell (2001) had her participants take a language test that tested their proficiency levels in both French and English.

Another drawback of this study is that casual conversation was not analyzed.

Recall that the 2-3 minute open-ended interview with the participants yielded no instances of calques. The lack of calques in the results may be related to three main factors: time, the researcher and the tape recorder. Since participants were only provided

with 2-3 minutes for this portion, they had a tendency to provide very concise and simple

answers. Also, the presence of the researcher and the tape recorder caused several

participants to be uncomfortable, so that they either spoke English or asked the researcher

a lot of questions. For future studies it might be preferable to record long conversations

between individuals without the presence of the researcher.

A further limitation of my study is that the participants who were categorized as poor or as belonging in the lower economic level were students. This possibly may be a discrepancy because it is obvious that most students will not have a full time job and therefore depend on their parents for financial support. In future work, researchers should take into consideration the parent’s economic status if students are involved, or attempt to control for difference in lifestyles.

The purpose of this study was to find out which extralinguistic factors have an impact on calque production and which do not. And, in spite of the potential drawbacks, this study has been successful in supporting the findings of previous studies that showed that extralinguistic factors such as education, economic status, and nationality do not impact the production of calques, while proficiency level in both English and Spanish, gender and generational background seem to influence the production of calques.

APPENDIX A INFORMED CONSENT

Protocol Title: Spanish-English bilinguals in Gainesville, Florida: A cross-generational study of the use of calques. Please read this consent document carefully before you decide to participate in this study. Purpose of the research study: To measure different linguistic features such as calques. A calque is the meaning of a word that is transferred from one language to another, for example, application (English) and aplicación (Spanish). The word aplicación is not a word in Spanish but because of the English influence the speaker may turn it into a word in Spanish. What you will be asked to do in the study: First, you will complete a short questionnaire with your demographic information and about your language use. Second, we will continue with a 10 minute interview. Followed by a short oral and written translation exercise. Finally, you will allow the researcher to use the questionnaires that you complete for linguistic analysis. Time required: A total of approximately 30 minutes will be needed. Risks: There are no anticipated risks to you by participating in this study. Compensation: Participants will receive no compensation for their participation. Benefits: Your participation in this study will allow us to understand better certain language choices that bilinguals such as yourself make in your everyday lives. Consequently, we as researchers and teachers will better understand the nature of language and how it can be taught and learned. Confidentiality: Your identity will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. The questionnaires you fill out will not have any form of codification, and your name will not be asked for nor used. Only the researcher’s advisor and the researcher will have access to the questionnaires you filled out in this project and the data that is audio recorded. Your name will not be used in any report and all audio files will be destroyed when data analysis is complete. Voluntary participation: Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. There is no penalty for not participating. Right to withdraw from the study: You have the right to withdraw from the study at anytime without consequence. Whom to contact if you have questions about the study: Dorian Dorado, M.A. student in Spanish Linguistics, Department of Romances Languages and Literatures, 170 Dauer Hall, PO Box 117405, 392 2016, [email protected] Dr. Gillian Lord, Assistant Professor, Department of Romances Languages and Literatures, 170 Dauer Hall, PO Box 117405, 392 2016, [email protected] Whom to contact about your rights as a research participant in the study: UFIRB Office, Box 112250, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250; ph 392-0433. Agreement: I have read the procedure described above. I voluntarily agree to participate in the procedure and I have received a copy of this description. Participant (Name & Signature): ______Date:______

APPENDIX B DEMOGRAPHICS QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Male ______Female______2. Age ______3. Place of birth ______4. Places where you grew up______5. How long have you lived in the U.S.A ______6. Nationality (i.e. Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican) ______7. Where does your family live? ______8. Have you visited a Spanish-speaking country? Which one? ______For how long? ______9. What is the highest level of education you have received? Primary school High School Bachelors degree Masters degree Doctorate Degree 10. Did you study Spanish in school? How many years? 11. What is your profession? 12. Estimated income (circle only one) $10,000-$20,000 $25,000-$30,000 $40,000-$55,000 $60,000+ 13. Do you have friends that speak Spanish? ______14. With what frequency do you speak Spanish to them? Never 25% 50% 75% almost always 15. What do you consider to be your dominant language? Circle one Spanish English 16. What is your proficiency level in Spanish? Excellent Good Poor 17. What is your proficiency level in English? Excellent Good Poor

APPENDIX C WRITTEN TRANSLATION EXERCISE

Note: Spanish translations and possible calques are given here, although neither was provided tothe participants. 1 Yesterday I went to the playground with my friend and her daughter because it was Saturday. Spanish: patio (de escuela) Calque: patio de juegos 2 On weekdays I usually go to work and go out for dinner. Spanish: días de trabajo Calque: días de semana 3 My answering machine is broken! Spanish: contestador automático Calque: máquina de contestar 4. I get excellent grades at school. Spanish: notas Calque: grados 5. Today I am going to ask for an application at Macy’s. Spanish: solicitud Calque: aplicación 6. I get the newspaper everyday except on Saturdays. Spanish: diario/ periódico Calque: papel 7. How do you like the soup? Spanish: Te gusta la sopa? Calque: Cómo te gusta la sopa? 8. Going to the movies is one way to have a good time. Spanish: pasar un buen momento/ pasarlo bien Calque: tener un buen tiempo 9. How did you like the movie? Spanish: Te gustó la película? Calque: Cómo te gustó la película? 10. My dad is 6 ft tall? Spanish: Mi padre mide 6’. Calque: Mi padre es 6”. 11. Ana doesn’t know how to read. Spanish: Ana no sabe leer. Calque: Ana no sabe cómo leer. 12. I am waiting for her. Spanish: La estoy esperando. Calque: Estoy esperando por ella. 13. We had respect for them. Spanish: Nosotros les teníamos respeto. Calque: Nosotros les teníamos respeto para ellos. 14. Now the house is 150,000 dollars. Spanish: la casa cuesta Calque: la casa es 15. The carpet in your house is brown. Spanish: la alfombra Calque: la carpeta 16. My sister has three credit cards. Spanish: tarjeta/ tarjeta de crédito Calque: tarjeta de plástico 17. I have two more months of classes at the university. Spanish: tengo dos meses más Calque: tengo dos más meses 18. I was working under several people.

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Spanish: Estaba trabajando con varias personas. Calque: Estaba trabajando debajo varias personas 19. I was born 10 miles from Mexico City. Spanish: Nací a 10 millas de la ciudad de México. Calque: Nací 10 millas afuera de la ciudad de México. 20. My parents are from a different generation. Spanish: una generación diferente Calque: una diferente generación

APPENDIX D QUESTION AND ANSWER ORAL EXERICSE

Note: Spanish translations and possible calques are given here, although neither was provided tothe participants. 1. Do you love your car? Spanish: Me encanta mi carro. Calque: Amo mi carro. 2. What do you do for fun? Spanish: pasar un buen momento Calque: tener un buen tiempo 3. How tall is your mother? Spanish: mide Calque: es 4. Do you like to bat at baseball games? Spanish: golpear/ darle Calque: batear 5. Do you like to catch the ball at baseball games? Spanish: agarrar/ coger Calque: cachar 6. What disturbs your serenity? Spanish: molestar Calque: disturber 7. Do you write letters to your mother Spanish: cartas Calque: letras 8. Do you often assume that everything will be okay in the future? Spanish: suponer Calque: asumir 9. Do you change your mind a lot? Spanish: cambiar de opinión Calque: cambiar de mente 10. Did you & your friends like to work? (Nosotros) Spanish: sí/ nos gustaba Calque: sí/ no nos gustábamos 11. Who is the most important person in your life? Spanish: la persona mas importante Calque: la mas importante persona 12. In order to pray, do you get on your knees? Spanish: estar de rodillas Calque: estar en rodillas 13. Do you prefer to mop or sweep?

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Spanish: trapear Calque: mopea 14. Do you get to work on time? Spanish: tiempo Calque: en tiemp 15. Did you like high school? Spanish: secundaria Calque: escuela alta 16. Do you like to attend school events? Spanish: asistir Calque: atender

APPENDIX E QUESTIONS FOR OPEN INTERVIEW

1. Tell me about your family. Describe them. Include details.

2. Give me driving directions to the Mall.

3. Tell me about a dream that you have had.

4. What do you like best about the United States? The least?

5. Tell me about a trip that you have taken in the past.

6. What makes you happy?

7. Tell me about your high school.

8. What are you dreams and goals for the future?

9. What do you like best about the University of Florida?

10. What do you like to do on the weekends?

LIST OF REFERENCES

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Clarkson, W. (1977). The Vernacular vs. Standard Spanish in the bilingual classroom: Implications for teacher training programs for Chicanos. Hispania, 60, 965-967.

Dorado, D. (2002). A cross-generational study of the use of calques. Unpublished pilot study, University of Florida, Gainesville.

García, O., Fishman, J. A., Gertner, M. & Burunat, S. (1985). Written Spanish in the United States: an analysis of the Spanish of the ethnic press. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 56, 85-98.

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Otheguy, R. & García, O. (1988). Diffusion of lexical innovations in the Spanish of Cuban-Americans. In Orstein, J. & Bixler-Márquez, D. (Eds.), Research issues and problems in United States Spanish (pp. 203-241). Brownsville, Texas: Pan American University.

Otheguy, R. & García, O. (1993). Convergent conceptualizations as predictors of degree of contact in U.S Spanish. In Roca, A. & Lipski, J. (Eds.), Spanish in the United States: Linguistic contact and diversity (pp.135-154). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Silva-Corvalán, C. (1995). Lexico-syntactic modeling across the bilingual continuum. In Fisiak, J. (Ed.), Trends in linguistics, studies and monographs 81: Linguistic change under contact conditions (pp.253-270). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.

Silva-Corvalán, C. (2001). Sociolingüística y pragmática del español. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

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Smead, R. & Clegg H. (1996). English calques in Chicano Spanish. In Roca, A. & Jensen, J. (Eds.), Spanish in Contact: Issues in Bilingualism (pp. 123-129). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Dorian Dorado was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and has lived in the United

States most of her life. Consequently, she grew up speaking both Spanish and English.

Because of her bilingual background, she has always been interested in the linguistic

processes that are found in the speech of bilinguals. Due to her interest in this field, in

May 2006, she will be completing her Master of Arts degree in Spanish linguistics. She

also will further her education by completing her doctorate in Spanish linguistics, specializing in Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States.